I'd just like to give an example of the scope of the problem in our country, because you asked that question before. There are two projects I want to talk to you about regarding police and criminal enforcement efforts done in our country.
The first is project consumer safety. This was undertaken by the Toronto Police Service. It targeted retailers and wholesalers selling counterfeit goods in our country, in Ontario. During this project there was a business that was selling luxury brand merchandise, purses and wallets and those things, at a retail level. When the rights holders took action against these counterfeiters, there was a judgment of the court, and the court ordered them to stop selling counterfeit. This counterfeiter decided to continue, and what we believed was a problem with respect to luxury-brand merchandise was not so. When the police went in and conducted their criminal raid, at the back portion of the store, which obviously the rights holder would have no access to, this retailer was selling counterfeit drugs. That's just one example where we would have no idea as a rights holder what we were up against, because these civil remedies do not provide for this. Obviously, we want our border officials to ensure that these criminals are stopped.
The second is with respect to project O-Scorpion. I applaud the efforts of the RCMP here. There was a six-month period between the fall of 2011 and the spring of 2012 when containers of counterfeit merchandise were targeted and seized by the RCMP. During that six-month period the value of merchandise that was seized in our country was $78 million, but that's not the number that should shock you. What about the six-month period following the project's end? What was the value of merchandise seized? Zero. That's the number that should shock you.
Right now, rights holders are dealing with this problem on a retail and wholesale level across the board. We need to provide resources to customs to deal with this problem, and the administrative regime will help do that, will help save costs for everybody involved.